The Expanded and Annotated My Life and Work

parts by weight, and, therefore, 80 to 85% (recyclable) scrap by weight. 
This reference adds that one manufacturer even bragged that his high-
agility machine ground 400 tons of aluminum into chips every month, 
and that he had to install an extra swarf compacter to handle this waste.
Arnold and Faurote (1915, p. 212), on the other hand, objected to simi-
larly wasteful machining operations at Ford’s Highland Park plant: “… 
that is to say, 5/6 of the pot stock is wasted.” The difference is, of course, 
that Ford’s workers did not brag about the waste, but instead tried to do 
something about it.
* * *
The suggestions come from everywhere. The Polish workmen seem to be the 
cleverest of all of the foreigners in making them. One, who could not speak 
English, indicated that if the tool in his machine were set at a different angle 
it might wear longer. As it was it lasted only four or five cuts. He was right, 
and a lot of money was saved in grinding. Another Pole, running a drill press, 
rigged up a little fixture to save handling the part after drilling. That was 
adopted generally and a considerable saving resulted. The men often try out 
little attachments of their own because, concentrating on one thing, they can, 
if they have a mind that way, usually devise some improvement. The cleanli-
ness of a man’s machine also—although cleaning a machine is no part of his 
duty—is usually an indication of his intelligence.
Here are some of the suggestions: A proposal that castings be taken from 
the foundry to the machine shop on an overhead conveyor saved seventy men 
in the transport division. There used to be seventeen men—and this was 
when production was smaller—taking the burrs off gears, and it was a hard, 
nasty job. A man roughly sketched a special machine. His idea was worked 
out and the machine built. Now four men have several times the output of the 
seventeen men—and have no hard work at all to do. Changing from a solid 
to a welded rod in one part of the chassis effected an immediate saving of 
about one half million a year on a smaller than the present-day production. 
Making certain tubes out of flat sheets instead of drawing them in the usual 
way effected another enormous saving.

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Machines and Men  •  87
The old method of making a certain gear comprised four operations and 12 
per cent of the steel went into scrap. We use most of our scrap and eventually 
we will use it all, but that is no reason for not cutting down on scrap—the 
mere fact that all waste is not a dead loss is no excuse for permitting waste. 
One of the workmen devised a very simple new method for making this gear 
in which the scrap was only one per cent. Again, the camshaft has to have 
heat treatment in order to make the surface hard; the cam shafts always 
came out of the heat-treat oven somewhat warped, and even back in 1918, 
we employed 37 men just to straighten the shafts. Several of our men experi-
mented for about a year and finally worked out a new form of oven in which 
the shafts could not warp. In 1921, with the production much larger than in 
1918, we employed only eight men in the whole operation.